Almac HQ
Leading local personalised medicine company Almac Diagnostics will play a major part in a new groundbreaking breast cancer study with a world leader in cancer research. Important genetic differences in breast cancers across different ethnic groups will be examined using state-of-the art technology developed in Northern Ireland.
In partnership with breast cancer researchers at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami Miller (UM) the collaborative project won a ‘Synergistic Idea Award’, awarded by the US Department of Defense. This prestigious research grant is worth nearly three-quarters of a million US dollars and is one of just twelve such grants awarded in the United States annually.
The grant, awarded over two years will allow Lisa Baumbach, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Paediatrics at the Miller School, and Mark Pegram, M.D., Professor of Medicine and Associate Director for clinical and translational research to expand their earlier work and examine the genetic differences found in African-American breast cancer patients.
In their study the academics will use Almac’s world leading Cancer DSATM technology to gather highly detailed genetic information from tumour samples, which have been either frozen or stored as FFPE tissue. This unique microarray technology allows the application to both current clinical practice and retrospective tissue banks.
Professor Paul Harkin, MD of Almac Diagnostics said: “Our cutting edge technology allows researchers to gain more information from present clinical tissue samples than was previously possible. It also means that we can now gain genetic information from historic samples, going back many years, which were stored either when genetic analysis was not as advanced or under conditions which made it very difficult to extract relevant data. This is one of a stream of studies we are involved in where our technology has supported top level international research institutions in their endeavours to develop new and innovative treatments for cancers.”
Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death among African-American women, and for this ethnic group, carries a 20 percent greater mortality than that of Caucasian women. Among the scientific community it is widely acknowledged that African-American women, regardless of their age, are more likely to have triple negative breast cancer. In addition, it is likely to occur at an earlier age, and have a higher proliferative fraction. All these factors add up to a worse prognosis.
Lisa Baumbach, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Paediatrics at the Miller School said: “Recent discoveries using the Almac Breast Cancer DSATM indicate there may be distinct genetic differences in breast tissue between African-American, Caucasian and Hispanic patients. The new grant will allow the UM team to take those findings a step further, with an international collaboration on women of African descent.”
